Life
being manifested by growth: being daily transformed as His kids, His friends…
HE CALLS US FRIENDS WITH BRENT LOKKER & JASON CLARK
This conversation with Jason Clark was hosted by Brent Lokker on his youtube channel Vibrant Life. This podcast begins with two dads sharing stories about helping their children encounter God as a loving Father. The guys dive into obedience in the context of union and friendship, learning to trust the unchanging nature of our Father, not as retributive, punishing, or abandoning, but as the tenderhearted one who accepts us, loves us, and is always good!
PETER HIETT / WHAT ABOUT HELL?
The goodness of God but hell, atonement but hell, reformation but hell, scripture but hell, Calvinism but hell; in this podcast Peter Hiett describes hell as “Satan’s big but.” In this conversation Peter walks us through the story of our own creation, the goodness of God’s reconciling love, the relational kindness of a God who encounters, sets free and transforms.
Peter describes a God who delights in His creation, a God who destroys what is evil, creates what is good, and invites us to observe our own creation in Christ Jesus.
JAMIE & DONNA WINSHIP / OUR TRUE IDENTITY
How to experience God, confession, faith, fear, freedom, our true identity, and cruciform, others-focused, self-emptying unconditional love barely scratches the surface of this packed conversation on the goodness of God. Jamie and Donna Winship share how we can discover our true identity through a relationship with God and each other.
ROD WILLIAMS / UNION WITH DISTINCTION
Union, a Triune God, mutual indwelling others-centered love (perichoresis) approaching scripture to discover Jesus, and communion are some of the themes Rod Williams dives into. What if “all” means “all” and God isn’t distant? There is no distance, no separation in God and this conversation is a beautiful invitation to awaken to that discovery and our union with Him.
SCOT MCKNIGHT / A CHURCH CALLED TOV
Co-Author of A Church Called TOV, Scot McKnight talks about his new book written in response to the abuses of power, sexual abuse, and spiritual abuse within the leadership of Willow Creek, Harvest, and sadly churches of all shapes and sizes.
We talked about TOV (which means goodness) and how when we practice empathy, compassion, extending grace, putting people first, telling the truth, promoting justice, and serving others, TOV emerges in the culture and we all become more Christlike.
SEXY DECONSTRUCTION? WITH DEREK TURNER & JASON CLARK
Matt Chandler, pastor, and writer, recently used the phrase “a sexy fad” when describing the deconstruction movement. Derek and Jason highlight his statement to dive into the nature of their own de/ and reconstruction. This podcast dives into sin, grace, reconciliation, and God’s love for all His kids, the church deep and wide. Ultimately, the guys kick off season three embracing Rom 8:38-29 That nothing… “will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Stubborn In The Right Direction
Love is how I address politics, religion, culture, the news cycle, nationalism, the United Nations, COVID, Vaccines, flat earthers, and misplaced trust in corporations and government…
LEAVING (& FINDING) JESUS WITH DEREK TURNER & JASON CLARK
God’s sovereignty revealed by Jesus through cruciform, self-giving love, the nature of trust, intimacy, and union, and the transforming truth that there is no shadow of turning with God, in this podcast the guys explore Jason’s upcoming book, Leaving (& Finding) Jesus. This conversation juxtaposes an inclusive, reconciling, self-giving, unconditional view of God’s love against an excluding, hierarchal, punishment-focused, conditional view of God’s love.
NAEEM FAZAL / REIMAGINING GOD
Naeem Fazal, founding pastor of Mosaic Church, and author of Ex-Muslim, talks about deconstruction or reimaging God. Naeem talks about the importance of being able to recognize God outside of our personal context, how to view sin, how to approach scripture, and a beautiful gospel that’s not just about a Jesus who saves but about a Jesus who is restoring humanity and all creation.
DALE HOWIE / UNSPOKEN SERMONS ON THE GOOD NEWS OF INCLUSION
Paraphrasing the sermons of George MacDonald, Dale Howie shares his sometimes painful, often beautiful, journey of awakening to the irreducible truth of life discovered in relationship. He speaks to grace, our common Fatherhood, our inclusion in Christ’s life, death and resurrection, our union, and the wonder of our humanity. A humble storyteller and relational theologian, Dale speaks as a father on behalf of Our Father, who loves all His children with a reconciling love.
SHEILA GREGOIRE / THE GREAT SEX RESCUE
Intimacy within marriage, the connection between intimacy and mutuality, the nature of trust, the definition of sex, addressing transactional vs relational thinking, dismantling obligation, addressing objectification and broken ideologies developed from Eph 5:22, “Wives submit to your husbands…” Sheila Gregoire practically rethinks sex so husbands and wives can experience intimacy, joy, and deeper connection.
BRIAN MCLAREN / FAITH AFTER DOUBT
“Christian faith, for me, is no longer a static location but a great spiritual journey…what matters most…is not where we are but where we’re going.” This podcast is a gentle invitation to discover a way of faith defined by love. Brian and Jason discuss navigating rejection, stepping away from literalism, and inerrancy in our approach to scripture and faith, and their personal journey of trusting that God is better than our best thoughts about Him.
BRIAN SIMMONS / THE PASSION TRANSLATION
“The bible, minus love, equals false teaching, false living, and fosters an anger in the soul of man.” Brian Simmons, author of The Passion Translation, talks about approaching scripture with a love theology, the oppressive impact of hyper literalism, women in ministry, equality, union, Jesus’ humanity inside the Trinity, the finished work of the cross, and the passionate, powerful, transforming love of God.
Twenty Seconds
So, what did we learn? Maybe you lost your job, or worse, you lost someone you love. Maybe you don’t see life going back to “normal.” I guess I’m writing this to assure you, maybe “normal” isn’t what you need. Maybe what you need is twenty seconds of insane courage to begin living a better life. I know life was probably good before the shutdown, but what if it could be better?
DR. CAROLINE LEAF / CLEANING UP YOUR MENTAL MESS
Brilliant, compassionate, and empowering, world-renowned neuroscientist and best-selling author, Dr. Caroline Leaf, talks about her new book, Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess. She addresses what happens when we don’t use our minds properly. Why mind-management is the solution to cleaning up our mental mess and how the science can help us transition from being aware of toxic thoughts to catching and managing them. In other words, she teaches us how to renew our minds.
With grace and humor, Jason juxtaposes an inclusive, reconciling, self-giving view of God’s love against an excluding, hierarchal, punishment-focused view of God’s love.
Based on scripture, studies, personal and shared stories, church history, and Jason’s experience as a pastor and relational theologian, Leaving (& finding) Jesus encourages readers to stop building their faith upon the broken foundations of a transactional view of God, and instead, embrace the reconciliation and self-giving love that truly transforms our lives and our world.
PRE-ORDER
JULY 28TH
Donald Trump, Politics, and the Church
I have witnessed the church, my brothers and sisters on both sides of an American aisle that doesn’t exist in heaven, go to war with one another on behalf of their devotion ‘for or against’ a politician.
The Hard Stuff in Scripture
Recently a friend sent a text suggesting that I do a podcast highlighting the ‘hard stuff’ in Scripture.
I responded back, “What hard stuff?”
Swords, Spears, Guns, and Lasers
Remember how they were joined by a host of raging superhero death angels shouting “Glory in the highest,” and “On earth, as it is in heaven!” while they committed acts of retributive justice that would make Quinton Tarantino blush.
Father Abraham, Tacos, and God’s Goodness
If Facebook existed during Abraham’s day, I imagine he would have been angry at my thoughts about God’s goodness.
The Church, Politics, and Trust
It seems the North American church doesn’t understand how trust works. You see, while trust is earned through faithfulness over time, it can be lost the same way.
I Was Born to Do This
Then we walked down the streets of JT Williams, a struggling community, to pick up twenty or so sweet kids. We took them to their local school parking lot, gave them a snack, told a Bible story, played games, and worked on a craft together. I loved it.
Developing A Strong Team
The danger of performance-based teams is that often consequences end up being the motivating factor to do better. A learning team culture celebrates loss and wins with the same amount of passion.
Seven Reasons Why I Don’t Belong to a Political Party
In this highly charged political season of us and them, we must not find our belonging or identity in a political party or persona. Otherwise, we become lost.
“The Wages of Sin…” in Context
What if “the wages of sin is death” is announcing the inherent consequences to sinful actions and what they will produce in this life, as opposed to saying if we sin we deserve torment?
God is Good, Not Just Nice
His goodness is rooted in Himself not just in His behavior towards us.
KATIE SKURJA / Discovering Our Humanity
In this podcast, Katie Skurga talks about discovering our humanity in the image of God, shame and behavior, grace and identity, paradox and spiritual and emotional maturity, freedom, and intrinsic authority.
ERIC JOHNSON / In The Image of God
Eric Johnson, the pastor of Bethel Church in Redding CA, shares generously, humbly, and with great insight on the goodness of God, navigating culture, Jesus and American politics, spiritual maturity, emotional health, and what it means to be alive.