Crazy Faith Talk

As we continue to explore the sacraments this Eastertide, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve begin to look at Holy Communion (known also as The Lord's Supper, the Eucharist, and the Sacrament of the Altar). And as we did with our conversation about baptism, we'll trace the through-lines from Jesus and his practice to the witness of the New Testament era church and then to later church history.  But starting things off, we turn to the borrowed upper room in Jerusalem where Jesus celebrated the Passover with his disciples, hours before his betrayal and arrest, when Jesus took the unleavened bread of the passover and remaining cup of wine and imbued them with new meaning, pointing to himself as a new kind of passover lamb.  What did Jesus' disciples think was happening, and how much might they have understood? What do the gospel writers want us to know about that moment, and how does it connect to our ongoing practice in Christian worship?  Join the conversation here on this week's Crazy Faith Talk!

As pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve continue to explore the sacrament of Holy Baptism, this time we'll look at how Christian practice has developed, deepened, changed, and grown over the centuries.  Along the way, we'll pick up questions from throughout Christian history about the how, when, and why of baptism, things like: does it matter how much water is used when I'm baptized?  Do I have to be a certain age, have a certain mental capacity, or be able to remember the event of being baptized?  What if the person who baptized me ends up leaving the faith or committing some terrible sin?  What about being baptized by proxy for someone who is deceased?  Why did people in an earlier time sometimes hold off on being baptized until they were on their deathbed?  All of these questions and more are up for discussion on this week's episode of Crazy Faith Talk!

In our new series exploring the sacraments, baptism and Holy Communion, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve are tracing these essential Christian practices from their rootings in the teaching and institution of Jesus through the present day.  Today we'll look at the New Testament as a bridge between Jesus' own baptism by John in the river Jordan and the many forms, modes, and practices around baptism today.  We'll look at how the early church understood baptism and why whole households were sometimes baptized all at once, and how baptism was also understood as God's gift of a new identity--like being born all over again.  Join the conversation and listen in here as we explore more of what it means to be the baptized people of God here on Crazy Faith Talk!

In a new series for Eastertide, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve will take a deeper dive into the sacraments: what they are, what they do, and why they matter.  Our series begins with a look at baptism--in particular, with Jesus' baptism in the river Jordan by John.  What is Jesus doing in the water there if he doesn't have any sins to "repent" of?  Where did the idea of baptism come from?  And what does the voice that speaks at Jesus' baptism have to do with us?  These kinds of questions start off our conversation here on Crazy Faith Talk!

In this final episode of our Lenten series for 2024, pastors Sarah, Erica, and Steve explore one final temptation the church faces--the lure of being the saviors ourselves, rather than pointing to Jesus as Savior.  Sometimes it's the way we want to conflate "faith in Jesus" with "being a card-carrying member of our congregation." And sometimes it's the impulse for MY church to have to do it all to meet every need: running the food bank, managing a homeless shelter, getting people job training, settling refugees, runing a children's ministry, or whatever else we might imagine.  Maybe, too, we need to own up to the times we have let our relief work in the world treat others patronizingly and belittling others because of OUR need to look like we are helping, rather than what OTHERS actually need help with.  In this week when the church focuses on God's saving acts for the world at the cross and resurrection, this conversation might just be the reality check and wake-up call we needed to remembe that we are called to witness to the Savior, not to try and take his place!  Blessings this Holy Week from us at Crazy Faith Talk!

In their ongoing series for Lent 2024, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve continue to look at temptations the church faces in our modern-day experience.  And this time we'll explore the temptation to fall for prosperity theology, or what is sometimes called the "health-and-wealth-gospel."  And we'll see what's missing in this approach to the faith, as tempting and popular as it might be (and as much as we might wish that the world could be simplified down to a system where good behavior or strong faith automatically is rewarded with material success or prosperity).  We'll explore how a faith that is centered on the cross of Jesus and the calling away from "cheap grace" will also mean we say "No" to the thinking of the prosperity gospel, no matter how many books it may sell or how many megachurches may lean on it.  We'll discover, like Dietrich Bonhoeffer once put it, that real grace is costly, because it will cost us our lives, but it is grace because it gives us the only true life there really is.

As we continue our Lenten series exploring the different kinds of temptations the church faces, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve take a look at the powerful temptation to become judgmental.  In the pursuit of holiness, we can end up being "holier-than-thou."  In the pursuit of righteousness, we soemtimes fall prey to being self-righteous.  And in the name of holding one another accountable, we can end up being judgmental jerks.  How do we guide, correct, and encourage one another with grace while avoiding the easy temptation to condemn anyone who thinks or acts differently from our personal convinctions or scruples?  And how do we discern the places we need to speak up or speak out against the things that run counter to the way of Jesus?  These are the kinds of questions we're raising in this week's episode of Crazy Faith Talk!

As we look continue our series for Lent 2024, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve keep looking at modern-day temptations that the church faces in our own mission and work, and how they might echo the temptations Jesus faced in his own forty days in the wilderness.  And this time we'll explore the temptation to chase after attention, popularity, and the latest trend, all in the name of being "relevant."  What's the difference between being "seeker-friendly" and selling out?  What messages are we sending about our purpose and the good news if the things we are excited about are a church coffee bar or theater seating? And how do we deal with the impulse in a social media age to have to have a "hot take" on whatever controversy or outrage is roiling over the internet at any given moment?  All these questions and more shape our conversation as we look for ways to be engaged with the world around us without losing the right focus for our mission and ministry.  Join us for this conversation here on Crazy Faith Talk!

This Lent, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve are taking a look at ways the worldwide community of Jesus, the church, face temptations today, and how they echo the temptations Jesus faced in the wilderness story as well as throughout his whole ministry and public life.  Today, we'll look at one of the most obvious connections to Jesus' encounter with Satan in the wilderness--the temptation to take earthly power.  Over and over again in Christian history, Christians have given into the temptation that if they just controlled everything or everyone and could back up their rule with force (and the point of a sword) they could make things be perfect.  Whether it was Constantine adopting Christianity and its symbols for the empire in the fourth century, the Crusades to conquer the land of Palestine in the name of Christianity, colonization of lands "discovered" by Europeans, or contemporary religion-affiliated nationalism, we seem to keep failing to learn from history that we lose something essential to our identity as the body of Christ when we sell out for political power or the control of government. And with tragic irony, so often Christians have done these things convinced they had God's blessing and the best of intentions--which makes this temptation all the more insidiious. In this episode, we'll explore some of these historical moments as well as questions in our own day about how we should and shouldn't use our voices and what can go wrong when church folks try to take over the reins of power.

In a new series for Lent this year, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve are going to be looking at some of the major ways the community of Jesus' followers, the church, may be tempted away from the path and way of Jesus.  We'll be exploring things like the temptation for the church to wield governmental or political power, the temptation to sell out to what is trendy, and the temptation to make ourselves the saviors of the world rather than Jesus.  But to start the conversation, the three pastors will do a little more in-depth exploration of the stories of Jesus' temptation in the wilderness from the Gospels, particularly in Matthew and Luke.  Do these surreal stories about meeting the devil in the wilderness, turning stones into bread, or jumping from the height of the temple mean something for us in our daily, down-to-earth lives?  And if so, what do they say?  Join us this Lent to look at where we might be lured away from the path of Jesus, and how we respond to those temptations, here on Crazy Faith Talk!

In this final episode of our series, "Books That Shaped Our Ministry," pastors Erica, Steve, and Sarah offer a reading list of a few other titles that we have each found helpful, provocative, or useful in our ministry lives, and we commend them to you for your reading as well.  Listen in for an introduction to each of these books and see what might pique your interest: The Epic of Eden--by Sandra Richter Kingdom, Grace, Judgment--by Robert Farrar Capon Manna and Mercy--by Daniel Erlander A Celebration of Discipline--by Richard Foster The Cross and the Lynching Tree--by James Cone There's No Wrong Way to Pray--Rebecca Ninke

In the third episode of their series on books that have shaped their ministry, pastors Sarah, Erica, and Steve take a look at a book entitled, "Part Time Is Plenty," by G. Jeffrey MacDonald, that offers a vision for how congregations can not only survive, but thrive, in situations where they have part-time pastoral leadership supplemented by empowered members of their congregations.  We'll explore the pressures many congregations feel to do ministry a certain way, or to keep with the pictures in their mind of "how we've always done it," and how pastors also often bring assumptions and expectations that have been foisted on them for how pastoral ministry should look.  We'll also take a look at how diverse the models of pastoral leadership have looked over the course of the last two thousand years, from Paul the bi-vocational traveling missionary and tentmaker to the circuit riders of the 19th century, to many models of serving in the 21st century.  If you've ever wondered, "How do congregations decide what is right for them for their ministry needs at any given time?" this conversation could be for you!  Listen in on this week's Crazy Faith Talk!

In their new series, "Books That Shaped Our Ministry," pastors Sarah, Erica, and Steve are taking turns, show-and-tell style, to highlight books that have been important for their ministry in some way.  Today, Steve shares a book that is now nearly thirty-five years old, but which still offers a provocative take on being the church as a minority voice, like salt, light, or yeast, rather than as a dominating voice aligned with anybody's political establishment or influence-peddlers. The book, Resident Aliens, co-written by Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon in the late 1980s, dared readers a generation ago to question whether Christianity was meant to fit into any political party's cookie cutter, whether the church is just supposed to be a harmless institution propping up the status quo, and whether we had stopped listening to Jesus himself as the primary architect of our way of life.  The particular issues of the day in the late 1980s are certainly different from today, several decades later, but the questions keep needing to be asked.  So, here's an introduction to these two distinctive voices who make us think--and think again--about how to live as the blessedly weird out-of-step followers of Jesus.  Join us for this conversation here on Crazy Faith Talk!

In our latest series, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve each get a chance to play "show and tell" to highlight a book that has been important or somehow formative for their ministry, theology, or work as a pastor.  Starting off this series, Erica presents a book called, The Bible Told Them So: How Southern Evangelicals Fought to Preserve White Supremacy, by J. Russell Hawkins, that takes a look at how the Bible was used, misused, and abused in several American church denominations to reinforce racial segregation in the United States, and what it means for how we approach the Bible today.  In the course of the conversation, we'll explore BIG questions like, "How do we tell if we are misusing the Bible to suit our own agendas?" and "How do we know when to speak up, when to be silent, and when to make room for other viewpoints on issues in our time and setting?" With the case of racial segregation in the 19th and 20th centuries, we can explore how people risked their livelihoods to speac against racism, and how others worked within structures and systems to preserve it--and we might get a starting point for examining our own lives and where we are called to speak up, and at what cost.  This is also a conversation about how to be more faithful and honest readers of the Scriptures, so it also connects with our every day spiritual life, too.  Join the conversation here on Crazy Faith Talk!

In this week's episode of Crazy Faith Talk, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve take a look at a part of the Epiphany story that often goes overlooked, unspoken, or deliberately ignored: the role of the puppet king Herod who kills the infants of Bethlehem and tries to deceive the Magi who come, following a star, to find the Christ-child.  Where is there good news in a story like this, and how do we deal with the parts of the biblical story that are terrifying and brutal like this?  And if we are afraid of engaging with a story like this (or just find convenient excuses for not ever dealing with it together), how will we ever find the courage to speak to a world still haunted by the memories of Auschwitz, the staggering death tolls of other countless genocides, or of wars against innocents unfolding in the world yet today?  These are the difficult questions we will have to deal with if we are going to listen to the way Matthew's Gospel tells us of the birth of Christ.  Join us for a powerful conversation and a compelling story to look at here on this week's Crazy Faith Talk.

There are countless ways to observe the birth of Jesus at Christmas, from beloved songs and carols to Christmas pageants to nativity sets.  And we aren't lacking for ways to mark the new year, too, from New Year's Eve parties to the making of resolutions for the year ahead.  But just on the heels of both of those is the traditional remembering of the visit of the Magi following the star to meet the Christ-child, often called Epiphany, and quite often that story, and its meaning, can get lost in the shuffle.  How do we help making this story connect with the tactile faith of young people who learn best by touch, sight, play, and experience?  And how can we invite grown-ups to explore how God continues to lead us, throughout our lives, closer to Christ?  On today's "Crazy Faith Talk," pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve explore one relatively new practice, "Star Words," that is meant to do both--to make our faith experience tangible, and to help move beyond a one-day Bible story to a deeper lifelong journey in relationship with God.  Join us for conversation about how "star words" might work, and how you might use one this year in your own spiritual practice!

In the second half our Christmas special for this year, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve look at how much of even "traditional" Christmas lore and celebration has been imported from wider culture over time and different places.  From the date of December 25 itself, to the evergreen wreaths and trees, to our connection of Christmas with snow, it turns out that a lot of what many people "expect" from Christmas has roots in the Roman Empire or pre-Christian religions of northern Europe. And while it can be helpful to acknoweldge how much of our Christmas tradition doesn't really have anything to do with Jesus, we don't have to cut out everything from our celebration that doesn't have a Bible verse attached to it.  But how do we navigate all that, letting traditions from other places be included in our celebrations, without mandating that any Christmas celebration without a pine tree covered in ornaments can't be "authentic"?  And how might all of this conversation help us realize that there's never been "one right way" to celebrate Christmas?  Join us for this conversation here on Crazy Faith Talk!

Merry Christmas!  For this year's Crazy Faith Talk Christmas special, we're going to take a look at how pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve engage with pop culture Christmas phenomena, from movies to songs to Christmas specials on TV and the like, that are "Christmas-adjacent."  Plenty of sermons have been preached about how Christmas is really about Jesus' birth, and there are plenty of Christmas-themed movies and songs that don't make that connection.  How do we deal with songs and shows that take us as far as "Christmas isn't about materialism" but don't get beyond "family is nice" or "togetherness is important" as far as what they have to say?  And do we treat Christmas songs and movies differently from the way we would treat other romantic comedies or movies about families?  If we can watch a "secular" romantic comedy or read a novel that doesn't have anything explicitly Christian about it and still find it entertaining or enjoyable, can we do the same when it's a movie that claims to have something to do with Christmas?  And how do we make choices about what kinds of songs or content make it into our public worship services, too?  If you've ever felt ambivalent about Christmas pop culture, this might be a conversation for you, too!  Listen in here!

In this last episode of our Advent 2023 series on being "a waiting church," pastors Sarah, Erica, and Steve look at how to practice Advent-waiting (that is both active and patient) in times that feel like decline.  As congregations change or shrink, as communities and neighborhoods change, and as the needs of each context develop over time, how do we walk through those times with hope?  How can even times where congregations close become grounds for new possibilities? Join us for this conversation here on Crazy Faith Talk.

This Advent, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve are looking at what it could mean for us to practice intentional waiting as as the church.  How do we reclaim the idea of "waiting" from passively sitting on our hands to something active and on-call--ready for God's next thing, but also using the time that looks fallow to be thoughtful, reflective, and to listen?  How can waiting times also be times for seeking vision and direction, so that we know where to go when our feet start moving again?  How can waiting times also be active, as we prepare for what will come next when the waiting time is done, like washing the mixing bowls while the bread dough is rising?  These kinds of questions help us to see both Advent and the whole Christian life as more than just biding our time counting down to something else, but using our time well in the hear and now also.  Join us for this conversation here on Crazy Faith Talk!