Soil and Roots
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© Brian Fisher
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Soil and Roots digs beneath the surface of cultural Christianity and explores how unconscious ideas in our hearts have a profound and lasting impact on our relationship with God, ourselves, others, and the world around us. Discipleship, or spiritual formation, is far more than memorizing Bible verses and volunteering at church. It's a journey of becoming more like Someone else, from the inside out. Come join us on a guided journey into deep discipleship!
93 Episodes
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The guys head into the Greenhouse to explore modern ideas about Heaven versus the biblical concept of the New Heaven and the New Earth. They share how their personal stories impacted their view of the afterlife, how those ideas have adapted and changed in recent years, and how they affect their journey to become more like Jesus.
Then they wrestle with how and why Splitters and Joiners disagree on the impact of the Kingdom on creation and culture today, and what that means for the everyday follower of Jesus in everyday life.
How does the story of the Kingdom of Light wrap up? Do our "ideas" about Heaven match up with what the Bible teaches about the final consummation of the Kingdom? Will we spend eternity playing harps on clouds, or do the New Heaven and New Earth have more in common with our life right now than we assume?
Let's explore our ideas of Heaven, and discuss when and how it's coming to Earth.
Kyle and Brian "Greenhouse" Episode 90, which explores how Jesus is the ultimate "Idea Revolutionary," challenging and transforming Ideas in the Air (those in culture) and Ideas in the Soil (those in our hearts).
We look at a few cultural ideas, including our assumptions about the Bible. Was the Bible written to us? Or for us? Understanding the difference impacts how we read it and how it forms us.
Then Kyle invites us into his story and heart, and he explains how Jesus is slowly transforming some of his dark ideas into life-giving, joyful truths.
We're finishing up our mini-series about the characteristics of deep disciples by looking at Jesus as the ultimate Idea Revolutionary.
We've introduced two categories of ideas here: Ideas in the Air (in culture and creation) and Ideas in the Soil (in our hearts). Let's explore how Jesus confronted and transformed ideas of both, and how we learn and grow to do the same.
Brian, Kyle, and Doc come together to explore Episode 88, explaining and debating what it means to "suffer well." Each shares some of their journey of suffering, while stressing the need for ongoing kindness, compassion, and a long-term commitment to each other in our formative communities.
And Kyle, the king of cultural references, struggles to use one from this century.
Let's dig in!
Suffering is a universal human experience, yet it raises perhaps the most difficult questions for Christians. Why does a good God allow so much pain and suffering?
And, as we grow to become more like Jesus, can a deep disciple learn how to suffer "well?" What does that even mean?
Join Brian as he explores the reality and challenge of suffering.
Dr. Tim Boswell is back and joins Brian in the Greenhouse to break down Episode 86, which explores the concept of both individual and social transformation happening from the inside out.
Great social reformers such as Wilberforce, Moore, King, Douglass, and Mother Teresa challenged harmful systems as well as the underlying ideas that drive corrupt systems.
Tim and Brian discuss and debate how a deep disciple can learn from these powerful idea revolutionaries.
How does positive family, societal, or national change happen? Do these "systems" change as a result of working on the systems themselves, or do they change as the hearts of the individuals inside the systems change? Or both?
In a world somewhat obsessed with growth and systems, a deep disciple still functions from the reality that, most often, transformation happens from the inside out.
The journey to the somewhat elusive "peace that passes understanding" promised in Scripture involves more than quoting Bible passages and Christian euphemisms. It includes struggle, suffering, and periods of intense wrestling with God and (sometimes) ourselves. Brian and Kyle head back into the Greenhouse to further breakdown Episode 84 and discuss how to find rest even in the middle of inevitable tension.
As we continue our discovery of the Forgotten Kingdom, we're taking a few episodes to look at sometimes hidden qualities of a deep disciple, a kingdom-dweller.
Today we're considering what it means to be restful in the middle of inevitable tension. How can we be at peace when God allows something we don't like? Or when we come up against a Bible passage that makes us uncomfortable? Or when we question His goodness?
For a person longing to become more like Jesus, the answer may not be as simple as quoting a Bible verse or throwing up our hands in recognition of the fact God is so much bigger than us.
Kyle and Dr. Boswell jump into the studio to further explore last week's episode about the quality of a deep disciple of releasing control. Ouch.
The guys debate a current buzzword in Christianity: "deconstruction." Is there good deconstruction and bad deconstruction? What if some sort of healthy tearing down and rebuilding of elements of our faith is necessary and helpful in the quest to train our hearts to release control? Do we embrace it or do we do our best to avoid it?
Let's dig in.
As children, we take trusting God and others for granted. Then we grow up, and that trust is shattered in a million different ways. We cope with breaches of trust by intellectualizing and trying to take control, usually without even realizing it. It only makes sense - we want to protect our hearts from further hurt and harm.
In this autobiographical episode, Brian shares some of his story, and how returning to a childlike trust always involves turning inward for a while. And it involves some deconstruction - the breaking down of parts of ourselves that we once thought were good, but are obstacles to freedom and authenticity in the Kingdom.
If a characteristic of a deep disciple is releasing control, why do we struggle to do just that, especially when attempting to control so many aspects of our lives often results in anxiety, fear, or even depression?
In this raw episode, Brian and Kyle explore "control" related to mental and spiritual illness, our tendency to inhibit our healing, and the power of lament in our journey to experience trust and security in our relationship with God.
Why do we find ourselves constantly taking control? We attempt to control situations, conversations, people, circumstances, and even the future. A deep disciple, a kingdom dweller, is characterized by releasing our control as we become increasingly "abandoned" to Jesus, yet so many of us find letting go incredibly difficult. Why?
The answer may be hard to hear and challenging, but necessary if we want to experience the freedom, rest, and peace that await us.
Let's dig into this personal, somewhat surprising episode!
Dr. Tim Boswell joins Brian and Kyle again, and they wrestle with this wonderful quality of a deep disciple: the habit of intentionally noticing the individual, or "particularity." Jesus routinely noticed and pursued individual hearts, thus restoring many from loneliness and isolation.
Since the "leprosy of loneliness" is such a dire condition in our society, join the guys as they explore the cure to what may be today's deepest spiritual need - the need to be intentionally and purposefully noticed.
And if Tim ever asks you to go hiking with him...just take a pass.
Particularity - the habit of uniquely noticing someone - is a central quality of being a deep disciple and something Jesus embodied repeatedly. Since the human heart's deepest desire is to know and be known, perhaps the cure to an extraordinary epidemic of loneliness (inside and outside the church) is to slow down, breathe, and practice particularity!
Based on Episode 76's idea that curiosity is a primary characteristic of someone journeying to become more like Jesus, the guys take a few steps even deeper. In a transparent and wide-ranging dialogue, Brian and Kyle explore obstacles to curiosity (sometimes including the church), and what it means to ask questions of God, others, and even ourselves.
As we continue to explore the Forgotten Kingdom, we start a short mini-series on the qualities and characteristics of a Kingdom-dweller. We would do well to survey the beatitudes or the fruits of the spirit to develop a list of characteristics of someone living in the kingdom. However, this is Soil and Roots...so let's dig beneath the surface to uncover some gems that don't always make the Top 10 lists.
Let's start with Courageous Curiosity. God asks a lot of questions. Why? Is it because He doesn't know the answers? Or is He revealing a path towards a deeper relationship experience with Him, others, and ourselves?
The guys engage in an animated exploration of the previous episode, asking themselves if they really want the kingdom to come. Kyle went the extra mile and polled his friends about their definitions of the kingdom, and his survey reveals the current confusion about a primary theme of the Bible. Then they banter about whether a "Stage 6" disciple is realistic or possible. Can we truly experience a life of peace, contentment, and sacrificial love?
We ask for the kingdom to come every time we recite the Lord's prayer. But in this episode, Brian asks a difficult question: do we really want the kingdom to come? Perhaps the kingdom has been forgotten because we want to forget it in favor of deeper ideas and desires in our hearts. Let's dig in!
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